17th July 2025
Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
15th July 2025
International Day of Women in Diplomacy: UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls visit to Geneva
1st May 2025
The UN Commission on the Status of Women: My first visit as UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls
12th January 2015 London, UK
The digital curriculum: from vision to reality
In November, my colleague Kate Burnham blogged about our work to design a new digital training curriculum for the FCO. Since then, we’ve been busy running pilots – “beta” testing 11 modules, in 4 different formats, with over 140 people in over 25 countries (and demand was so high that we already have waiting lists […]
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8th January 2015 London, UK
Training peacekeepers to prevent sexual violence, with the British Peace Support Team (Eastern Africa)
Caroline Vaudrey writes about UK-supported training for peacekeepers in Somalia. Preventing sexual violence in conflict – what does that mean exactly and how do you train peacekeepers to do this? I needed to find out. So, I visited a course in Kenya training Africa Union (AU) peacekeepers who would be deployed to AMISOM, the AU […]
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7th January 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Time to Stand and Stare
These days everyone seems to be in a hurry. Having a “busy schedule” has almost become a badge of honour of modern life. Employees rush from one meeting to the next; parents try to cram in lots of activities for their children; we hardly have time to stop and appreciate the world around us. It […]
7th January 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Pope Francis in 2015
The following is a guest blog by Steve Townsend, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy to the Holy See After the busy Christmas period in the Vatican, January has often been a slightly quieter time. However, under Pope Francis this is not looking likely, as the diary is already filling up fast. On […]
6th January 2015 Oslo, Norway
Captain Scott’s Norwegian memorial
Contributed by Lt Col Matt Skuse RM, British Defence Attaché in Norway. On 28 December 2014 the British Embassy was invited to participate in a ceremony commemorating the 100 year anniversary of a Captain Scott memorial monument raised on the mountain plateau at Finse. Captain Robert Falcon Scott, a British Royal Navy Officer and explorer, […]
6th January 2015 Windhoek, Namibia
Looking back and looking forward in Namibia
People are starting to slowly trickle back into Windhoek from their holidays all around the country and abroad – making this the perfect time to take stock and review the year that was – as well as to look ahead to the year to come. I am proud to say that 2014 was a busy […]
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5th January 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
An Australian Christmas and New Year
Back to work after a Christmas/New Year break which is rather longer in Australia than at home. That’s because it’s summer here and with the schools on holiday most Australians take a long break. Many won’t be back until much later in January. In British terms it’s Christmas and August combined. We had our final […]
5th January 2015
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
2014: the UK in Sudan
2014 was a difficult year for the people of Sudan. As in most countries the principal concerns were probably jobs, standard of living and education. Sudan has had to deal with high inflation and the deteriorating business climate, with the knock-on effect on employment. Conflict continued, leading to deaths, displacements, human rights violations and damage […]
5th January 2015 Athens, Greece
Looking back at 2014
Here, the year ended with high drama. In the last few days of December, the car ferry Norman Atlantic blazed on the Adriatic, with tragic loss of life, and the attempt to elect a new President of the Republic failed. If nothing else, 2014 will be remembered because, at its fag end, the country was […]
2nd January 2015 London, UK
2014 – year in review
Quick EU pop quiz. Which European leader said in December: “As the European elections showed, the people do not think that Europe must do everything. Europe must do the things that can be done better than we do them in the nation states.” You might imagine it would be someone from the Netherlands – we […]